Moss Side
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- This article is about the area of Manchester. For the district in Lancashire, see Moss Side, Lancashire
Moss Side is an area of Manchester in England. The area, formed partly by a council housing estate (now largely rebuilt and regenerated) in the south of Manchester, rose to national infamy during the 1980s and 1990s due to its high crime level and a series of riots. Moss Side has been subject to massive investment due to the leadership and hope inspired by local artists and community leaders over the last decades.
Moss Side is the traditional centre of Manchester's large Afro-Caribbean community and also has many people of Irish and Welsh descent. Famous people from Moss Side include the musicians Barry Adamson (who played with Magazine amongst other bands) and Steve Diggle, guitarist with Buzzcocks. Morrissey spent much of his childhood in Moss Side and neighbouring Hulme. Barry Adamson has a prolific body of solo work, including 'Moss Side Story', a soundtrack to an imaginary film.
There are two breweries in Moss Side. The Royal Brewery brews Kestrel, McEwan's and Harp lagers. Hyde's brewery brews traditional beers including Hyde's Bitter and the cask version of Boddingtons - the latter since the closure of the Strangeways brewery in 2005. The more widely available keg version of 'Boddies' is no longer brewed in Manchester.
Moss Side lies on the A5103 (Princess Road), the main road out of Manchester towards Manchester International Airport, the M56 motorway and Chester.
History
A 'Moss' is an area of damp, boggy ground and until the mid 19th Century Moss Side was open countryside. Around the turn of the 20th century, hundreds of terraced houses were built around Moss Side although some were later purchased by landlords and rented out to tenants. From December 23, 1885, a Salvation Army presence existed in Darncombe Street. Large numbers of Afro-Caribbean immigrants arrived in the area during the 1960s. Many Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses were demolished in the 1970s and replaced with large numbers of low and high rise council flats. Most of the activity which made the local crime rate one of the worst in England is said to have involved people living in these flats. After the race riots of 1981 the area came to national attention again in the 1990s for 'turf wars' between rival drugs gangs, resulting in a number of fatal shootings. Many of notorious flats in Moss Side and neighbouring Hulme were demolished in the late 1990s to make way for new low rise homes, while the remaining housing has been renovated with streets redesigned to reduce the fear of crime.
Maine Road
From 1923, Moss Side was the location of Manchester City Football Club's stadium at Maine Road which on several occasions in its early years drew crowds of more than 80,000. But its capacity was gradually reduced over the years and by the mid-1990s it held just under 35,000 spectators all seated. The club's board initially planned to create a 45,000 capacity at Maine Road, but this was abandoned in favour of relocating to the government funded City of Manchester Stadium which would host the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Maine Road has since been demolished and houses are expected to be built on the site.
See also
Moss-Side, a small village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.